ZDNet receives social makeover
October 31st, 2006 by Wendy McAuliffe
For those of you familiar with technology news website ZDNet.co.uk, you’ll have noticed the massive redesign that has gone live this morning.
The site has received an extreme Web 2.0 makeover, and is crammed full with social media functionality. ZDNet has truly embraced the transformation in media and journalism that has taken place over the last year in particular, and is now offering readers a far more interactive and democratic news service.
Matt Loney, site director of ZDNet, told Liberate Media exclusively: “The redesign of ZDNet is a significant and fundamental leap in thinking for large editorially driven sites.
“With this redesign we wanted to move away from what I call ‘print think’ - the practice of simply posting article after article on the Web. Journalism has always been about creating conversations, but in print, and many online versions of print publications, these have always been confined to the limit of the article, and been controlled by the author. We wanted to break away from those artificial limits, so we think of the site as a place where we can tell readers what is going on and what they need to know, but also as a place to stimulate conversation.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into search with our redesign, because in addition to encouraging user generated content, we want to give readers a way to discover eachother based on the content they and their peers are creating as much a on who knows whom. That requires a whole new approach to search, and we think we’re way ahead of the field here. One small illustration of our new search is the tag clouds in our ‘News and Reviews’ sections showing what companies, people and terms are being written about and discussed at any instant.
“Of course this is only the beginning. Now that we’ve built the platform we’ll continue to tweak and improve it, so watch this space.”
The new platform requires free registration in order for users to benefit from the range of personalised and community services on offer. From the short taster that I’ve had this morning, I can see that this is going to be a great networking opportunity for business people in the IT and communications space, to rival services such as LinkedIn and Soflow.
All news stories offer blog functionality, and it’s easy to see at a glance which stories are generating the most buzz. From a PR perspective this provides great new opportunities for clients.
A nice feature is a panel in the left hand nav which shows how ‘active’ a user you are. This should help to encourage readers to participate in blog discussions and the community as a whole.
The profile section in particular appears very well designed and useful, enabling users to generate their own mini-blog from comments that they’re posting elsewhere on the site.
Go and register and have a play yourself!
As a former ZDNet journalist, I’m disappointed this didn’t happen while I was there…
October 31st, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I just did a feature on this site last night. It looks great and I spent pretty much my whole evening on it (sad I know).
October 31st, 2006 at 4:29 pm
ZDnet.co.uk rejects
I note with pride that I’ve managed not to go for a “ZD 2.0″ themed headline, but nonetheless Web 2.0 is very much the flavour of the all new ZDnet.co.uk website. I have to say, first impressions it looks great.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:42 pm
ZDNet UK se sociabilise
Info intéressante en provenance du blog Liberate media : le site britannique ZDNet vient de lancer une version beta très Web2.0. Au menu : mini-blog, votes sur les articles, trackbacks, nuages de tags, profil perso, email, etc. Le directeur du
October 31st, 2006 at 5:44 pm
It’s funny. Rupert’s diary mentions that “marketing has discovered it, so it’s not a diary any more - it’s a blog” or words to that effect. I remember when Rupert and I both did a weekly online diary, way, way back (at LEAST ten years ago!) and people would write in and say which of us they thought had “won” each week.
And now the history books are being re-written, and my diary doesn’t exist any more (why?) and Rupert’s is a blog. Ah well. “Last week’s news is this week’s fish and chip wrappings…” thanks, Rupert, yes… I know!
In case you don’t believe me, check out http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/2956